There are power trios and there are STICK MEN, an entity of superpower, abilities and sensibilities. Last heard of, or from, or simply heard, earlier in the year when the little ensemble, slightly expanded, issued a live album, now they have a new record ready to go. Scheduled for October 21st release, “Prog Noir” focuses its title on the band’s main characteristics on this set of new pieces, with a few of them dimming fierceness in favor of more song-like approach that Tony Levin has lately demonstrated rather often and Markus Reuter and Pat Mastelotto eagerly support. If it means moving closer to KING CRIMSON, they never saw a problem in that, especially when the trio were incorporated in THE CRIMSON PROJEkCT.
Prog Noir
The album will be available in a variety of formats, from a download – lossy and lossless – to a regular CD to a deluxe box set which includes 2LP, 2CD, poster and T-Shirt and is signed by the players. The second CD is to have 8 bonus tracks on it, while the primary disc (read the review) looks like this (but was “Leonardo” named after Da Vinci or the band’s manager Pavkovic?):
1. Prog Noir
2. Mantra
3. Plutonium
4. The Tempest
5. Schattenhaft
6. Rose In The Sand / Requiem
7. Leonardo
8. Trey’s Continuum
9. Embracing The Sun
10. Never The Same
